Former Russian intelligence officer says America is 'in big trouble’

On The Plot Against America, former FBI Special Agent Dennis Franks enlisted the help of two former Russian intelligence officers while investigating possible Russian infiltration of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and they painted a grim picture of U.S. counterintelligence against Russian espionage. American intelligence officials believe that over 1,000 Russian spies are operating in the U.S. The former Russian officers said there are more spies in the U.S. now than during the Cold War, and they had an explanation for that.

“Thanks to the collapse of the Soviet Union, [the] political climate has changed,” one of the former officers said. “No one is paying attention to accent. No one’s gonna ask if you’re Russian. No one is freaking out anymore. So [it’s] way easier to infiltrate United States right now for Russians.”

When asked about Russian intelligence operations, the former officer said that America is “in big trouble,” and that Russian spies are targeting and recruiting Americans to work for them. Another cited 9/11 for the sudden influx of Russian spies into the U.S. He said the U.S. was focused more on terrorism than what Russia was doing, while Russia was still focused on the U.S.